Russian FM leaves for the 67th session of UN General Assembly

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on September 26 to discuss peace and security in the Middle East

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MOSCOW, September 23 (Itar-Tass) — Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will leave for New York on Sunday to attend the 67th session of the United Nations General Assembly and a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Syria.

Lavrov will have a busy program on the sidelines of the 67th session.

“The Russian foreign minister will meet U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon. He will take part in the meetings of foreign ministers of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), the BRICS groups of countries and the G-8. Consultations will also be held within the framework of coordinating ‘trio’ of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the ‘trio’ of the Non-Aligned Movement, the partners from the Cooperation Council for the Arab States of the Gulf as well as southern Pacific nations,” the Russian Foreign Ministry reports.

The Russian delegation will continue working on the agenda of the United Nations General Assembly, especially on themes that are a priority for Russia.

“We will continue pushing forward our traditional initiatives on transparency and confidence-building measures in space and international information security. As before, we will continue counteracting attempts to falsify history and revise the results of WWII. We will once again submit a draft resolution to the General Assembly on inadmissibility of certain practices which contribute to escalation of modern forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and intolerance that derives from them,” the Russian Foreign Ministry went on to say.

The United Nations Security Council is scheduled to meet on September 26 to discuss peace and security in the Middle East. Experts believe that emphasis will be made on the situation in Syria. Observers expect heated debates because of sharp differences over methods of Syrian settlement that exist between Russia and China, on the one hand, and the United States, Britain and France on the other hand. Some Russian diplomats hope that a consensus will be found. The Syrian issue will also be discussed at a meeting with the United Nations/LAS special envoy Lakhdar Brahimi.

Other topics for discussion include Iranian problems and the Middle East settlement. The six nations will hold a ministerial meeting on Iran to discuss further steps needed for normalizing the situation linked to Iran’s ‘nuclear dossier’. The Middle East “quartet” will discuss prospects of resumption of direct dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis.

Monitors don’t rule out that Sergei Lavrov may touch upon all the aforesaid issues in his speech at the general discussion of the United Nations General Assembly on September 28.

The Russian foreign minister is expected to draw attention to the supremacy of law in the context of reaction to crisis situations.

“We hope that our call to renounce unilateral unbalanced approaches and the use of force in favor of peaceful dialogue to be pronounced from the U.N. rostrum will be heard. This is particularly important against the background of the current processes in the Middle East and Northern Africa,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.